


starlight

by orphan_account



Series: summer drabbles [3]
Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 18:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7278670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico can't see the impossible things Percy sees</p>
            </blockquote>





	starlight

      Being with Percy always made Nico feel like he’d never felt. 

      Before, he always thought he knew who he was. He was the son of Hades, the outcast who never stopped running. 

      Being with Percy was more complicated. Percy looked at him like he was a blue sky, like he could be anything. Percy didn’t treat him like he felt he should, he treated him like a hero and demanded that he treat himself the same. Percy didn’t treat him like a broken glass, or a bomb that was just waiting for the right time to explode and take everyone around with him. Percy acted like he was righteous and good and everything that try as he might, Nico could never see in himself.

     He walked through camp with Percy and where he normally stuck to the side, out of sight, Percy walked right down the middle of the paths. He didn’t put Nico on display or anything, but he gave off the feeling that if he were to, Nico would be worth it. 

      He sat with Percy at the dock minutes to lights out, Percy’s hand lazily looped through Nico’s. He looked out at the sea, his thumb rubbing absentmindedly against Nico’s hand. This, this simplicity of holding hands alone with no one to convince of Nico’s virtue, was what Nico couldn’t get over. He Knew Percy felt the same, had heard him say it nearly every morning since they had gotten together, but it was like he was waiting for it to be over, waiting to wake up from the best dream he knew he could never live.

      “C’mon,” Percy smiled, getting to his feet and pulling Nico up with him. He reached for the smooth stone near his foot, and with a flick of his wrist the stone was flying through the air, only to land on the first skip with a loud  _ THUNK. _

      “You can’t skip rocks on the ocean, dork.” Nico laughed, kissing Percy’s cheek. Percy laughed as well, bending to pick up another rock. As this one flew, Nico noticed the change in Percy’s breathing, the sharp intake of breath through his belly. He looked and sure enough, the ocean was smooth in a lane just long enough for the stone to skip once, twice, and off into the distance.

     “I didn’t, uh,” Percy was blushing now, which despite having seen it before, Nico still marveled at the sight. “I don’t - dad. Must be - you know - showing off.”

     “Of course.” Nico replied, grabbing a stone from the sand for himself. Having never actually, you know,  _ skipped rocks because who actually does this in real life Nico does apparently,  _ his wrist is too stiff, and he can tell before the stone strikes the water what will happen.  _ THUNK. _

     “Here, let me - “ Treading close to the line of being too cheesy for Nico to handle, Percy stood just behind Nico, put a stone in his palm, and guided his hand in a mock throw, showing him where to flex his wrist, where to let go.

      “I don’t suppose Poseidon showed you that to show off?” Nico asked, knowing it wasn’t true, but the way Percy smiled at the thought of his mother was something Nico treasured since having met Sally properly, not talking about plans to possibly get her son killed. Well, perhaps that was yet to be seen, what with Hades being who he is, but Nico digresses. 

     “My mom. She told me, Poseidon tried to show her how, after he, like, revealed himself on being a god, and she just shook her head and skipped the stone farther than he had done. She especially liked the look on his face after.”

      “Your mom is a hero to us all.” Nico said, and though they laughed he meant it completely. 

      “She is. As are you.” Percy said, wrapping his arms around Nico, finally taking advantage of being behind Nico and putting his head on Nico’s shoulder as the smoothness of the ocean faded into the regular waves, not choppy and violent like should be for the tide coming in, but smooth as the level rose slowly, inching their way toward the two of them.

      “If you say so.” Nico replied, which was only half sarcastic. If Percy loved him, if Sally loved him in the way he’d never had from a living mother, how could he not be? Even if Nico couldn’t see it, he believed in them, and by that extension, in himself.

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: This work is entirely fictional, a work of fanfiction and is in no way a representation of Rick Riordan or anyone who represents him/his publisher/the future of the series/anything legal. Rick Riordan does not, as well as anyone else in any way a part of the creation of actual Heroes of Olympus works, recognise of this work as an official representation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus series.


End file.
